William is born into a life of crime, forced to assist his parents and their cronies in violent, lawless acts. Discarded by his family to the state, he soon develops a keen sense of survival, convinced he is unfit for American family life. He becomes a loner. Rejected by the juvenile care system, he is released to the streets, where he leads a life of delinquency, depravity and—ultimately—evil. He is in and out of juvenile detention and labeled a criminal by the time he is sixteen, when he is sent to adult prison as a lifelong criminal with little chance of release. Yet despite it all, there remains a spark of compassion, and a hope for redemption and a better life to come.